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NEW YORK – Discounter Walmart Stores Inc. isn't the only company taking steps to buy more goods made in America.
It's also on the minds of luxury and upscale retailers and brands.
With the industry under pressure to respond quickly to fashion trends and seeking to shorten the period between designing a product and getting it on store shelves, there's a growing appeal to buying U.S.-made products, retailers say.
Increased labor costs in markets such as China, high import duties, fluctuating currency exchange rates and uncertainty over volatile fuel costs make manufacturing in the United States more attractive. Add in questions about quality and recent evidence that worker conditions in some countries remain unsafe and the result is that more and more companies have started to look seriously at buying more domestically manufactured goods.
"There are opportunities to test products" made in America, Brooks Brothers Chief Executive Claudio Del Vecchio said in an interview, adding that the percentage of the apparel retailer's made-in-the-U.S. stock as part of the total has increased. "It's part of our culture to support American manufacturing. We like to buy from America."
Brooks Brothers, which makes 70 percent of its suits in a Massachusetts factory, 100 percent of its ties in New York and 15 percent of its shirts in North Carolina, is also looking at increasing the manufacturing of its men's shoes and accessories in the United States, he told MarketWatch. The company's website has a section that touts only made-in-America products.
With the sputtering U.S. job growth rate, the industry, at the National Retail Federation's annual convention earlier this week, called for its members to do their part to support U.S. jobs. Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon, in a keynote speech at the convention, said the retail giant is buying an additional $50 billion U.S.-made products over the next 10 years. It plans to do this by increasing orders for things such as paper and sporting goods it already buys domestically but also by helping to bring back production textiles, furniture and higher end appliances.
At luxury retailer Saks Inc., Chief Executive Steve Sadove said while its customers of traditional European luxury labels care more about the brands and their quality and workmanship, Saks also has been increasing domestic sourcing in its "contemporary brands," which usually refers to brands that are considered younger and hipper and carry a more affordable cost.
"We are seeing a resurgence in 'Made in America' in contemporary" brands, Sadove said in an interview. "We are increasing sourcing there because you can get replenishment much more easily (through) supply chain in America."
In a Brunswick Group survey of more than 200 U.S.-based investors interested in the luxury sector, 80 percent of them said the reputational risk associated with offshore manufacturing is beginning to offset the cost savings for luxury goods manufacturers.
"A lot of our (luxury) clients talk about bringing sourcing back home," said Susan Gilchrist, group chief executive at communications firm Brunswick Group, at a Financial Times Business of Luxury panel Thursday. "It's not just about publicity. The actual (cost) differential gap is really closing."
Marcus Wainwright, head designer for the contemporary apparel label Rag & Bone, said more than 60 percent of its products are made in the United States — and at a profit.
"To have flexibility and nimbleness is incredible in the U.S.," he said at the presentation. "There's something intangible and valuable. It's more about craftsmanship and authenticity than margin and profit."
At designer house Vera Wang, high-end wedding gowns are also made in America.
"It's almost impossible to do the dress elsewhere," Mario Grauso, president of Vera Wang, said at the panel. "We have 12 weeks to deliver the dress. We don't want to disappoint the bride. Our high-end customers care where it's made."
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Description Point. 1 80 minutes Full Live Actor-Music Show
Point. 2 Music Party on stage with 23kinds of instruments!
Point. 3 Stage with 23 Kinds of instruments!
Synopsis The beautiful couple has a wedding ceremony everyone celebrates. All are happy, but only the bride's father still feels displeased with the son-in-law. For the father, the groom tries hard to resolve his emotion. Though every way, but it does not work! A special guest appears, refreshing up the atmosphere! Finally, it's time to throw the bouquet… Oh My God! Accidentally, the bouquet falls into the father's hands. Would they finish their wedding in one piece? |

subset: commoncrawl


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I have often been puzzled by conference or workshops speakers who recommend techniques for optimizing the academic library web site so as to increase the likelihood that search engine users would find the library home page. Why would a student or faculty member use a search engine to find my library's web site? Shouldn't they just know what our URL is? (Folks, if I'm missing something here on this search optimization thing, please enlighten me). Actually, I always suspected that they didn't know our library's URL – which is the familiar "my university's URL/library". That's why, quite a few years ago, I obtained a simple to remember domain name. Now we just tell everyone – go to gutman.info – it works with a redirect to the actual URL. Some new information seems to support the value of a really simple, one word domain name.
It seems we may have overestimated how many Internet searchers use search engines to find a desired web site. New findings suggest that many people skip engines altogether and instead use what is known as "direct navigation." That's a fancy way of saying the users just type your exact URL into the browser's address bar. According to data from WebSideStory, "more than two-thirds of daily global Internet users arrive at a web site via direct navigation, compared with just 14 percent from search engines" (quote from Matt Bentley of MarketingProfs.com). With so many individuals using direct navigation it makes sense to go with a library domain name that is super simple to remember. That's what many businesses are doing. For example, Barnes & Noble uses Books.com (that could have been a good one for a library), RentalCar.com (Enterprise Rental), and Baby.com (Johnson & Johnson). If your library has come up with a good, easy-to-remember, one word domain name please share it with our ACRLog readers.


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Smart Grid research revelations
Building owners are looking forward to data-driven energy management opportunities, but need utilities to communicate a Smart Grid value proposition.
Ask an engineer or building owner about the Smart Grid, and you're likely to get a variety of answers, ranging from, "Huh? What's that?" to "Awesome! I can't wait for the green grid to charge my car at home and improve the power reliability and quality of my facility."
You might also get an answer that is informed, but dark, like, "Dude – think about it – buildings will be asked to modulate their energy usage in synch with utility pricing signals or control commands – and buildings can't run properly off a constant thermostat set point."
How do I know you'll get these answers? Because I put the questions to 30 engineers, owners, and HVAC manufacturers in a study commissioned by Danfoss North America, which sought to shed light on the building industry's perceptions of the Smart Grid and motivations for investing in their facilities to connect to it.
Among the key findings are that privacy and security assurances are a basic expectation–not a selling point. Environmental benefits, grid reliability, and deferred power plant construction are, generally, not selling points. Aside from lower energy bills, the chief benefit owners are expecting is energy-usage data they can use to better manage their facilities. On the other hand, facility equipment, controls, and staffs may not be able to take advantage of the data or work with utilities to establish and manage a Smart Grid program. And, HVAC and controls manufacturers are aggressively developing technologies for the Smart Grid that could revolutionize equipment controllers and building automation systems.
You can download a copy of the executive summary at www.engineering.danfoss.com. The full report will be available in the future as well, so check the site often in the coming weeks.
Beyond the report, here are a few recommendations to the buildings industry for getting Smart Grid ready.
First, utilities need to do a much better job educating their customers about the Smart Grid, and they need to develop robust financial packages for their Smart Grid offerings. In this recessionary environment, owners are being very conservative about dollars, and are expecting rebates and other first-cost incentives, and lower energy bills and other operating cost reductions. Utitlies need to do the homework for tailoring pitches to commercial customers on an individual basis because of the variety of owners and facilities.
A sweet spot for utilities might be introducing Smart Grid features into commissioning and retrocommissioning programs, and including capital project incentives for controls and building automation systems upgrades and replacements. The energy savings are unpredictable (and therefore not bankable), but they'll get facilities smart-grid compatible.
The national network of state and regional energy efficiency program developers, which advise utilities and regulators how to structure and rollout rebate programs and which often manage the programs, need to expand their mission to include the Smart Grid. This will help promote the renewable power and other sustainability outcomes of Smart Grid deployment.
Finally, engineers and commissioning providers need to get smart on peak-shaving and peak-shifting technologies and techniques, such as automated demand response, demand limiting, and thermal storage. They need to talk with HVAC and controls manufacturers to learn what they're up to on Smart Grid offerings. And, if things go as I hope they do, get ready for a lot of controls retrofits and upgrades throughout the country.
In closing, a special thanks to Danfoss for this this forward-looking research, to the industry professionals who took my phone calls and participated in the project, and to the reviewers and commenters on the report.
Ivanovich is the president of The Ivanovich Group LLC, which provides research, analysis, and consulting services to the buildings industry. Read his blog at https://theivanovichreport.wordpress.com
Word on the street
Smart Grid Panel Agrees on Standards for Wireless Communication, Meter Upgrade
Prepare for the Smart Grid Surge
Smart Grid standards for buildings
Demand Response Research Center
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Could US Senate hopeful Michael J. Sullivan get a boost from the national Tea Party faithful?
Such is the hope of the Conservative Campaign Committee -- formerly known as the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama -- which is trying to rally conservatives nationwide around Sullivan's race for US Senate.
In an email with the subject line, "Boston, here we come," committee member Lloyd Marcus wrote that the Tea Party affiliated group has been "putting together a secret plan to launch our independent expenditure campaign" for Sullivan.
Marcus lauded Sullivan as the conservative in the race and called his Republican rivals, Gabriel E. Gomez and Daniel B. Winslow, "liberal Republican opponents," pointing to their past support for Democrats.
He said the group hopes to raise $45,000 for a radio campaign and $115,000 for TV ads on Sullivan's behalf. The committee, he said, has already raised $25,000.
In an email to the Globe today, Marcus said his group is working on production of both the radio & TV ads and called Sullivan a "common sense conservative."
It remains to be seen how much interest the committee will generate for Sullivan, who has already picked up support from many in-state conservatives as the only abortion opponent in the race. Three years ago, support from the then-surging Tea Party helped fuel Scott Brown's out-of-nowhere win in the special election for Senate.
The Democrats running in the special Senate election -- US Representatives Edward J. Markey and Stephen F. Lynch -- have reached an agreement barring outside TV and radio advertising on their behalf, a move designed to keep third-party groups from slinging mud for either candidate.
But the three Republicans vying for the primary nomination have declined to participate, leaving outside groups, such as the Conservative Campaign Committee, free to run ads.
Sullivan campaign manager Paul Moore told the Globe that he was not aware of any institutional Tea Party support for his candidate but added that "anyone who wants to get out and help Mike is welcome to get out and help Mike."
"We don't have a litmus test for someone who walks in the door and wants to lick an envelope," he said.
Jim O'Sullivan of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @stephanieebbert.


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The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila
Quick Facts
• Who wrote it: Alana Chernila
• Who published it: Clarkson Potter
• Number of recipes: 101
• Recipes for right now: Yogurt, Maple Popcorn, Sauerkraut, Potato Leek Soup, Pudding, Chicken Nuggets, Veggie Burgers, Lasagne, Breadsticks, Chai, Peanut Butter Cups, Fig Bars
• Other highlights: There are a few things that I love about this book and why it has earned a spot on my very crowded shelf. First, this book has all the basic recipes you might conceivably need in one place, from homemade butter to homemade peanut butter cups. It feels comprehensive. It feels empowering. It feels like I can clear out a few other DIY books and just use this one instead. I love how Alana just gives us the straight-up recipe, no twists or special spins, just the simplest, most easy-to-follow form of the recipe — though, yes, with plenty of exciting variations and tips for getting through tricky spots.
Second, this book is as pleasurable to read as it is to cook from. Her witty recipe titles crack me up, like "Tortillas, or The Only Problem with New England" and "Jerky, or Just You and the Highway." Her recipe headnotes are more truly blog-style mini-stories. They hit just the right note to me, being both entertaining and informative. Reading about her own life, her relationship with her husband, and parenting two young girls, I start to put the recipes into context. I can see how one might conceivably integrate all these homemade projects into daily life.
• Who would enjoy this book? DIY-ers, folks wanting to replace store-bought foods with homemade, new cooks looking for basic recipes
Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: The Homemade Pantry:101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making by Alana Chernila
• Visit the author's website: Alana Chernila
Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf.
(Images: Emma Christensen)


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Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
Stereophile's Products of 2008
Times are hard. Our current economic landscape bears more than a passing resemblance to that darkest of American nightmares, the Great Depression. As I write this, the House of Representatives is set to vote on a $700 billion bailout plan to buy distressed mortgages and thereby offer a crutch to our ailing financial system. Times are hard, yet we persevere. Though we may lack some discretionary income, we find ways to maintain the essentials: food, clothing, shelter, and, for audiophiles, music. So for a short while at least, let's put aside our struggles and lighten up. After all, this great hobby of ours is meant to be fun, and is supposed to cure any depression. Let's celebrate music, and those wonderful audio components that bring us closest to it.
Since 1992, Stereophile has named a few choice components as its "Products of the Year." In doing so, we happily recognize those products that are capable of providing musical pleasure without boundary, far beyond our formal review period. We break it down into five categories: "Loudspeakers" (including subwoofers), "Amplification Components" (preamplifiers, power amplifiers, etc.), "Digital Sources" (transports, processors, music servers, disc players), "Analog Sources" (phono cartridges, turntables, tonearms, FM tuners, etc.), and "Accessories" (all those little extras that keep us busy and satisfied). New for this year, our writers and editors declare their personal favorite components. Finally, the two most important categories are self-explanatory: Our overall "Product of the Year" is the best of the best and our "Budget Component of the Year" leaves us with the most cash to spend on new recordsan economic bailout of sorts.
The voting was simple: Each of Stereophile's 14 hardware reviewers and editors was asked to nominate up to six components in each of the eight categories. To be a contender, a product had to have been reviewed in one of the 12 issues of Stereophile from November 2007 through October 2008, in a full Equipment Report, a Follow-Up review, or in one of the regular columns by Art Dudley, Michael Fremer, John Marks, Kalman Rubinson, and Sam Tellig. That way, only those components could be nominated for which a writer had put his opinion in print for public scrutiny. We then compiled a ballot form listing all components nominated by three or more writers and/or editors. This process ensured that most nominees in most categories will have been auditioned by the most reviewers. Each editor or reviewer gave three votes for his first choice in each category, two votes for his second choice, and one vote for his third choice (if any). A consensus emerged, and the winners became clear. Editor John Atkinson tallied the votesyou can see JA's comments on how the voting process works hereaddress your love letters and hate mail to him.
The prices listed were current as of the end of September 2008. To order back issues mentioned in this article, call (888) 237-0955, or visit www.stereophile.com (MasterCard and Visa only).
And the winners are . . .


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Cross Compiling
Cross Compiling and GNUstep depends on what you want to achieve.
The following is based on this discussion on the mailing list.
See also: Writing_portable_code
I have a GNUstep source running on Linux/GNUstep and want the same application to run on OSX
You have several options - more or less complex.
Copy source files to OSX and use gnustep-make
The simplest, and best option is obviously to install gnustep-make on your Mac.
curl ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/core/gnustep-make-2.0.5.tar.gz ./configure make sudo make install
and then compile your project by typing 'make'. You get a native Apple OSX application compiled against the Apple OSX ObjC frameworks ... using the same GNUmakefiles you were using on GNU/Linux/*BSD/Windows. :-) --N. Pero
Additionally to the already suggested use of Xcode, you can build GNUstep on OS X with the apple-apple-apple combo.
While this might need a tweak or two to work, this gives you a thin layer of GNUstep (its additions) onto what Cocoa already provides.
--Markus Hitter
Copy source files to OSX to develop, build and debug using Xcode
Add a wrapping Xcode project (in addition to the GNUstep makefile) and configure it to compile directly on OSX for OSX using the OSX Cocoa frameworks. You can share the sources e.g. through SVN. There is no problem having GNUmakefiles and some .xcodeproj in the same source code directory. The main benefit of this approach is that you can use the Xcode/gdb integration for debugging.
Examples using this approach: 1. SWK Browser from the GNUstep SWK project, DataBuilder from 2. GSCoreData (look into the sources at www.gna.org)
Development is done by either working on Linux and using GORM/Project Center and compiling for Linux, or on OSX opening the project in Xcode. The only thing to keep in mind is that you must also update the Xcode project or the GNUmakefile if you add source files or resources. The GNUstep .app bundle is different and runs on Linux only. The OSX .app bundle runs only on OSX, i.e. there is no single bundle that covers all architectures (unless you do some additional tricks).
Install GNUstep on OSX using MacPorts
Then, you can set up an identical build environment on both machines. The drawback is that you don't have a "native" OSX application which you can easily launch by a double-click on the .app icon.
Benoit Astruc writes: I think I have done this : - I installed GNUstep Make and BaseAdditions on Mac OS X 10.3 (it was 2 years ago so not the Make 2.0 version, I don't know if it works with the new version), - I used a GNUmakefile like this one :
# This usually happens when you source GNUstep.sh, then run ./configure, # then log out, then log in again and try to compile ifeq ($(GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES),) $(error You need to run the GNUstep configuration script before compiling!) endif include $(GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES)/common.make APP_NAME = WRP WRP_MAIN_MODEL_FILE = MainMenu WRP_APPLICATION_ICON = WRP.icns WRP_PRINCIPAL_CLASS = NSApplication WRP_RESOURCE_FILES = gui/* Images/* Resources/* WRP_OBJC_FILES = main.m \ ... snip a bunch of sources files ... DEGeneralPrefsController.m \ GSStringCat.m include GNUmakefile.preamble include $(GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES)/application.make
There was a trick however, the first time I had to write manually some file, WRPInfo.plist if I remember well, and then it was used. I don't do anything on this app since 2 years ago so I don't remember well, but I am pretty sure I had nothing more to do. And the result was a perfectly Mac OS X app build with GNUstep make.
Real cross-compiling (building on Linux for MacOS X)
This means that you have a gcc version on your Linux machine that emits executables that run on OSX. Unfortunately, OSX uses MACH-O binaries and building a cross-compiling gcc is very tricky. So I would not consider this as a reasonable option.
I have an Xcode project and want to run on Linux
a) your target machine has a compiler Here, you have to check that you are not using too specific frameworks. Then, add a GNUmakefile. Copy the files to your Linux system and run the GNUstep makefile.
b) your target machine is an embedded system In this case, you need a cross-compiler on the build host. This can be a full Linux machine or a OSX machine (but it is more difficult to get a working cross-compiler running on OSX).
I have an Xcode project and want to run on Windows
Please refer to [1]


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Lamb of God's Randy Blythe Goes In-Depth on How He Secured His 'Dark Days' Book Deal
Ever since Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe was arrested in the Czech Republic on manslaughter charges, a million questions have been directed at Blythe and the rest of the "pure American metal" band.
One year ago, Blythe was found "not guilty," so not only is the musician now free to live his life as a free man, but is able to tell his story in the upcoming memoir, 'Dark Days.'
The story of Lamb of God's world tour-turned legal crisis has been told in the band's 'When the Palaces Burn' documentary, which is now in theaters.
However, Randy Blythe's 'Dark Days' memoir will serve as the most in-depth, personal recollection of the vocalist's imprisonment, trial and exoneration to date.
In a lengthy and fascinating post from the official 'Dark Days' Tumblr page, Randy Blythe addresses the memoir and how the answers to all your questions will be found in the book:
As I wrote in my first post, I'm going to explain how I managed to conceptualize and finally sell to a publisher the idea for Dark Days. Today I'll take you step by step with me on the road to glory, and show you how I finally sealed the deal by methodically employing a brilliant strategy; one I have been developing, refining, and tactically executing bit by bit for the last twenty years. I'm excited to see the culmination of this fool-proof plan: millions of copies sold of my universally acclaimed first book, undoubtably sending me skyrocketing straight upwards in a blazing trajectory terminating in the hallowed halls of the literary elite. Shakespeare. Tolstoy. Hemingway. Woolf. Iceberg Slim. D. Randall Blythe. It's been hard work, but completely worth it. And now, for the first time ever, you can apply this this strategy to any of your creative endeavors, and I guarantee you'll succeed or you'll get your money back! For the full plan, just call the toll-free number at the bottom of this post, and for a measly 100 bucks you'll get the complete four volume set of Randy's Rapid Writing Rewards (tm) System! As a free bonus, if you call now, I'll send you my latest e-manifesto, "How To Get Nominated For Four Grammys By Screaming Like A Giant Four Year Old, Lose Them All, But Still Make Some Pretty Good Scratch". That's more than double your money's worth FOR FREE!
Actually, that's not how I got my book deal at all. And by the way, anyone who guarantees you artistic "success" in any discipline if you will just buy the "method" they are selling should be bitch-slapped with a Webster's Unabridged. It just doesn't work that way- these people are shysters. Stay away from them. They are generally failed writers/artists who couldn't get their own stuff published/in galleries, so they whip up a batch of artistic snake oil to sell you. If they are good enough salespeople, if they can distract you with enough bullshit promises and fast-talk (like redundancies similar to "free bonus", but cloaked in twenty-five cent words that are not so made-for-tv sounding) to cover up what we all already know (which, of course, is that success in any field takes hard work), they will indeed be fiscally successful. You could look at what they've done, take a few notes, apply the same methods to your own shady grind, and make your own dirty money. But that's just the art of hustling, not art. You can learn how to hustle on the street corner for free, if you've got the cojones.
The way I got my first book deal was a whole lot faster than following some twenty year plan I had cooked up; but much, much harder than that, and a great more painful. I can only wish that my first published book was going to be about something else, because although I'm glad my book will come out, and I hope it does well, I'm not at all happy to be writing about what I am. In fact, this book wasn't even my idea- I had to be convinced to write it.
Before June 27, 2012, I sure as hell never kicked back and thought "Maybe one day I'll write a true story about how screwed up and terrifying my life might get if I ever wind up going to prison in a foreign country after being charged with killing a fan of my band". When the shit hit the fan and I found out a person was dead, I went through a very sad and very scary year. I was arrested, imprisoned, released, stood trial, and was exonerated. After it was all over, I wanted to do just about anything but talk to strangers about the whole ordeal. I refused to do any press (and I still won't do much) because all anyone would want to talk about was prison and the trial, and I had already been through that. I knew that one day I would write the story, in fact I knew that from the second they cuffed me at the airport in Prague. But I sure as hell didn't feel like writing about it anytime soon- maybe in a few years, after I had grown a few more gray hairs and looked a little more author-ish.
Just thinking about writing it made me uneasy, because I knew how painful it would be for me to dredge it all up again and tell this story, the whole story, for the first time- to sit with it daily and live in it again, filling the blank pages with some of the worst days of my life for hours at a time. To put it mildly, it's not exactly the most pleasant topic for me to reminisce about. But I've come to realize during this process that that's one of the biggest reasons I need to write it: it's uncomfortable for me. Even if something goes haywire, I lose my deal, and the book never gets published- I am facing things that scare me yet again, staring down the enemy within that doesn't want to really look deeply at painful situations, examining what I did right and what I did wrong, and how these things have have affected me in order to figure out how to honestly make the best of a really bad scene. I used to just get drunk if I got uncomfortable with life- I can't do that anymore (not if I want to live), so I have to accept the totality of all the circumstances in my life and try to improve the aspects of it that can.
More and more, I'm seeing that writing all this painful stuff down is actually good for me. I hate to use this phrase, because it's even more trite than some of my more unimaginative lyrics, but getting all this stuff down on paper is, well, cathartic. I need to process some stuff, to engage in some heavy-duty self-examination, and order my thoughts. I need to be still for a moment, catch my breath, and ask myself: "What you've just been through- what does it mean in the overall context of your life? What have you learned? What lessons can you take away from this awful tragedy?" Because if I don't learn anything from this ordeal, I've failed myself, and further more, I've failed as a human being. Writing is slowly helping me to learn how to think correctly about what I went through, because what happened isn't like a movie, where there are characters introduced, then conflict, we move on to the climax, and finally the resolution. This isn't some episode of Law & Order, this is my goddamned life, and everyday I think about what I went through, and I think about people I met in prison in the Czech Republic, and I think about a dead fan of my band, and it rips me apart. How could it not? I hadn't even finished trial yet at this time last year. Unless I hide completely from society, even if I do manage to not think about the whole deal for a few hours, someone always brings it up. Total strangers will come up to me in the grocery store and tell me they are glad I am free. I am grateful for this, I truly am, but honestly it's like I just got out of prison every single day a lot of the times. My head is a mess- I did the right thing, but now I have to figure out what's the next correct action for me to take in order to grow as a person.
For me, being on tour is no place for such deep introspection. My head is busy maintaining the brutally myopic state of mind it takes for me to get up there and entertain people by going nuts night after night. Especially after this last year, on tour I had to stay focused on the job at hand, or I would fall apart at the seams on stage. On tour, I don't have time for "feelings". Lamb of god fans don't care about "feelings" after they've paid good money to see us do our thing. They expect us to get up there and kick ass, and rightfully so. They dropped cash to see a metal show, not a bunch of grumpy bearded middle aged men who look like they don't care about what they are doing and would rather be somewhere else. Everyone in every band has a bad gig from time to time (it's unavoidable- we are only human), but if you call yourself a true professional (and you better believe I do), 99.99999% of the time you better just rub some dirt on it and do work, son. I have no patience for cry babies on tour. Go hard, or home.
After I was acquitted in March of last year, the very last thing I wanted to do was go back out on the road with lamb of god. There was still a forthcoming appeal hearing for the verdict of my case, requested by a very unhappy prosecuting attorney. I still wasn't quite out of the woods, but the whole trial had been very costly, and the bills were continuing to pile up. My band needed to refill our coffers if we were going to remain fiscally solvent as a business entity, so we went back to work. This was good for me not only financially, but I believe it was beneficial (to a degree) for my psyche. I needed to work to keep the appeal out of my mind as much as possible (since I could do nothing to prepare for it- this was strictly a lawyer's game). I had to get back on the horse sooner or later, and my band needed to finish the tour cycle we had begun so long ago. So we went back to work, and finished what we started, like real professionals do.
But towards the end, my deepest desire was to leave lamb of god behind for a bit, to not be the heavy metal singer dude 24/7. Because on tour, that's the mold you are crammed into, no matter how hard you try to maintain a bit of personal space and identity outside of the band. Unless you are Prince or Led Zepplin or someone like that who can afford to live in their own little bubble of weirdness, there are just too many people around you at all times who will not let you exist as anything other than a band guy. On the road, no matter how may times you say "I'm just a regular dude", you are not treated like one. To expect otherwise is foolish- you're on tour for fuck's sake, not at a spa. But after three years of writing, recording, and touring on the Resolution album (not to mention my legal troubles), it was high time to forget about "us" for a bit and think about "me". Because "me" needs a little attention from me right now if there is going to continue to be an "us".
The last two or so years of my life I have felt a lot like this picture I took the other day at sunset:
Sea foam. Blown through life by the seemingly random winds of chance, born atop violent waves of events terrifying in their nature and possible consequence. I was really scared, and I had no real control over the direction I was heading. I suppose some would say that is nonsense, that I could have refused to return to Prague. I wouldn't have been extradited, of that I'm certain. I could have made the choice to stay in America, and tried to forget about what I had left behind in Europe like an illegitimate child I had just discovered but still irresponsibly chose to abandon. But just as the sea foam sits momentarily apart from the ocean on the beach, only to be eventually reclaimed by the roaring tide that birthed it, such would have been my fate had I run from this unfortunate situation- this unattended aspect of my life would have come back for me in one way or the other, and I would have been born out to that dark sea of of my lesser self, to drown in fear and shame. It would have been the death of me.
There is a law of cause and effect in this universe. If you do not do the right thing, it will always, always, always eventually catch up to you. My experience has shown me that this is an infallible truth. Whether or not you see it in effect or believe in it makes no difference. This immutable law of cause and effect is absolute; and while you can run for bit, you can never hide. In plain ol' English, what comes around, goes around. Or more appropriately: you get what you give. Remember that.
Although I had done my best to do the right thing, and my course of action had worked out for me for the moment, I didn't feel much inner peace as we hit the road to finish up our tour cycle. I just wanted to hurry up and get off the road and away from the job I live (because if you're the real deal, it's not something you do, it's something you live), a job that daily reminded me of the last two years. I just wanted to not deal with this thing that hurt so badly inside just for a little bit, to hide away in distraction, family, and friends. I needed a vacation from my life. This is, of course, impossible, but I was ready to give it a try.
A month or so after my exoneration, but still before the appeals trial, lamb of god's booking agent, Tim Borror, started hitting me up via email and a voice message or two, telling me he knew a literary agent who wanted to talk to me. I had already had a few initial talks with a wonderful and not-to-small independent press about a concept for a photo essay book I had in mind (and still plan on doing, with the same press if possible), and Tim's messages could only mean something I wasn't thrilled at all about: any literary agent wanting to talk to me right then would want me to write one thing and one thing only: the story of what happened in Prague. This actually started to make me feel panicky (which is something I almost never feel- I'm not a panicky kind of dude. Panicking gets you dead); the thought of going back through all this stuff, reliving and even recreating the whole experience literally made my heart beat faster. I blew Tim off, and didn't return his calls. After a while of getting no answer from me, lamb of god's manager, Larry Mazer, started emailing me "Hey, Randy, Tim is trying to get ahold of you about a literary agent". Christ. I was getting it from two guys I work with now; two guys I like personally and consider friends. But writing a book about going to prison was the last thing I wanted to do, so (not without a good amount of guilt) I blew Larry off too, until he pulled a classic manager move and actually got me on the phone about something else, then said
"So are you gonna call Tim Borror back or what? He's been trying to get a hold of you for a while now".
Crap! Trapped. Managers of rock bands are devious creatures who will trick you into do all sorts of things you have no desire to do if you don't watch them like a hawk.
"Fine. I'll call him back. But I don't want to write a book about Prague. Fuck that. I need to forget about that stuff for a while." I sighed, then rang Tim up.
Tim confirmed what I already knew: this agent wanted to talk to me about writing a book about Prague. Tim vouched for him, saying he was the real deal and one of the smartest guys he knew. He seemed to think the agent, Marc Gerald, and I would get along just fine and asked me to just give him a call. Fine, I thought, I'll call this motherfucker, but he's going to be wasting his time. I'm not writing a book about Prague, no way, no how. That day, March 25, 2013, Tim wrote an email introducing Marc and I, and Marc replied almost immediately, saying how he would like to talk to me. Then I blew Marc off for three days, until finally the guilt got to me (I had agreed to talk to him, after all), and we set up a call for the next day.
To those of you who don't know how the book world runs, an agent, a real, reputable, literary agent, is pretty much a necessity. Yes, you can self-publish on a vanity press; and every year a few of these books eventually get picked up by outside publishers if they are good enough and the author hustles enough to build up a strong grass roots following. But if you want someone to hit the trenches running with your proposal or manuscript, find you a suitable publisher, secure you a half-decent advance, and help you navigate the murky waters of the publishing biz as you attempt to build a sustainable career as an author, you want a literary agent. A real agent with connections in the business- not some bozo you pay a fee to before you see a publishing contract and who works out of their basement when they aren't flipping burgers. You want an agent that the overloaded editors at publishing houses trust enough to at least glance at the submissions they throw their way, because editors have stacks and stacks of manuscripts and proposals to look at and make decisions on. They tend to look at the ones from agents who have delivered a best selling author or two into the publishing world first. This is the type of agent you are gunning for.
"But how do you get one of these agents?" you might be asking yourself.
I dunno. There are whole books written on how to obtain a reputable agent in the writing sections of bookstores across the land, but I've never read one. I guess that in my grandiose literary daydreams, I always just figured one would just appear like magic for me one day when I was ready. I had thought plenty about having an agent before, romanticizing the writing life and all its trappings to a ridiculous degree. I would be the hard-drinking, hard-writing, no-bullshit-taking-punk-rock Hemingway of my generation, and somehow an agent would find out about me, beg to represent me, and then go on to sell my nonexistent manuscript for millions. I guess I thought he would come find me at the bar. It was a lot like the bands that sit around pissing and moaning in their home town bars, hoping to get "discovered". That never happens, and it didn't for me; but just like those bands, I managed to get plenty drunk.
But now, amazingly enough, a real deal agent had just appeared like magic… and I didn't even want to talk to him, especially not about a book I didn't want to write (be careful what you wish for, because it might just come true). There are thousands and thousands of unpublished authors out there who would give their pinky fingers to just get their foot in the door of an established agent's office, and I had been blowing this guy off for weeks. I was truly dreading our talk. The twenty-three year old me would have kicked my teeth in if he could have heard me bitching to my wife about not wanting to call this dude. Then again, the twenty-three year old me hadn't just been through what I had.
I called Marc, who was an exceedingly pleasant and obviously very intelligent man. I let him know right from the beginning that I had a photography book in the works and I didn't need any help with getting that published. He seemed fine with that, and began to tell me about how he thought the story of what had happened in Prague was fascinating, and how it had the potential to make a great book. He also told me he thought it was an important story, one that needed to be told. I agreed, because I do think it's an important story, and I do think it needs to be told. I don't think it's important because it's my story, I think it's important because if I tell it correctly, I might just be able to help some people. I have fans tell me all the time that the lyrics I have written mean something to them, that my band's music has really helped them through some very tough times.
I have a dear friend who got very, very sick and lost both of her breasts to cancer. I met her because she came up to me in a bar in Ohio years ago and told me that when she was going through chemo, lamb of god's music helped her keep her chin up, helped her keep fighting when she was sick as a dog and felt like death itself. She is still alive, and she is a tough lady. She is a survivor.
This woman had beaten death itself, and she wanted to thank me just for singing a few songs? This was an immensely humbling experience, but from that day on, I slowly began to realize that (just like all the bands that I love so much have done for me), my band's music can actually help people. It's honest. It's real.I have to honor that, and show these peoples' experiences some respect.When I was in prison, I knew I would write about it eventually. Maybe if I didn't screw it up too badly, my story could help a few people one day- who knew? But this was really recent, and it still hurt me. The memories were still really fresh, and I wanted to distance myself from them. I told Marc this, that I didn't think I was ready yet, but that maybe I would be one day.
"Yes, I understand. But, Randy… your memories will start to fade." he said quietly.
And that was basically it. That's how a literary agent I tried my best to avoid talking to convinced me to at least be willing to think about writing this book. He was right- they would fade. I kept an extensive, very detailed journal in prison; but even reading old entries now, I can't remember some of the things happening that I wrote about, or I have to sit and really think hard to conjure up the images that go with some the writing I did in Pankrac Prison. Most of it is as clear as day, but some isn't.
Memories fade.
I told Marc I had to come to NYC where he lives soon, to record a few episodes of The Crucible, the radio show I host from time to time on Sirius/XM, and he suggested we meet up and discuss how to put together a book proposal. I agreed to meet up, and we made plans.
"Thanks Randy, I'm really happy to be working with you," he said, and hung up.
We're working together now? I thought Oh well-I guess I have a literary agent.
Less than a month later I had finished writing my book proposal. Marc sent it out to publishers, several of which gave us callbacks, and I had preliminary talks with a bunch of editors. There was a brief auction, and then I had a deal. Less than two months had gone by; from Marc's first email to me, until the day he called me to say
"Congratulations, you have a publisher."
Quick, but it didn't come easy, thats for damn sure. I would have rather it not come at all; if not having a book deal or even not ever having my band could change what happened in Prague May 24, 2010. But it can't, so I will do the best I can to try to bring what good I can out of this. I'm a musician, and a photographer, and a writer.
It's what I do.
Plus, once this thing is done, whenever people say "What was it like in prison?" or ask me "Why did you go back?" or "Are you free and clear of all that Prague stuff now?", I can just say…
Read my book. The answers are all there.
The exact date of the 288-page memoir's publication has not yet been locked down, though the 'Dark Days' Tumblr page confirms a 2014 release. However, Amazon currently lists the publication date as Feb. 3, 2015.


text:
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Why Another Checklist?
You can get to the checklist using the menu on the right.
This project started in 2006 as a way to try to explain to some friends some of the new ideas that might lead to rather drastic changes in bird checklists. The initial intent was to focus on the Metaves hypothesis and potential changes in the Emberizidae (sensu lato, this name is usually used, although Icteridae has priority). The treatment of both has changed substantially since then, with Metaves being replaced by its remnant, Columbea, and the Icteroidae undergoing drastic changes.
As I started to write it up, I noticed more and more changes both being made to bird checklists and in the literature. The project grew into a longish essay I put on the web in 2007. However, the more I worked on it, the more there was to do! I found that a family-level listing wasn't enough. The composition of the families was changing too. I needed to go down to the generic or even species level. To properly track the changes, I needed my own world checklist.
Unlike other checklists, this one is based on genetic studies to the highest degree possible. With one or two exceptions, it relies on published studies (including those available "ahead of print"). The strong focus on genetics means that previous morphological studies are often treated as second-class citizens. This is especially true when they aren't consistent with the genetic data, even if the genetic data is somewhat soft. Nonetheless, I rely on such analyses to fill in the gaps left by the genetic data.
My approach contrasts with most checklist committees. They usually put substantial weight on traditional classifications, and try to avoid speculation, even when its clear that the traditional classification is wrong. In particular, they try to avoid making erroneous changes, and put a premium on stability.
This checklist has a different purpose. It exists to speculate, to map out potential changes in the taxonomy. The price of focusing on speculation is to give up stability. I try to avoid erroneously maintaining the status quo, and try to keep abreast of the latest findings, even if incomplete.
The truth is that much of the genetic analysis is incomplete. It is still the case that only part of the avian tree has reliable results. For the rest, some is still relatively uninvestigated, some has results that are not clear cut or even contradictory, and some studies are not well executed. In some cases I've taken my best guess based on available data, sometimes speculating well beyond the genetic data.
The instability of the TiF worldlist may make it unsuitable for everyday use, although it should serve the useful function of highlighting potential changes regardless of your preferred checklist. Unlike a printed checklist, the TiF web list can be easily updated as new information, corrections, and better interpretations come to my attention. The "What's New" button at the top will show you the latest changes.
Previously, only the combination of Sibley and Monroe (1990) and Sibley and Ahlquist (1990) or its precursor in the Auk (Sibley, Ahlquist, and Monroe, 1988) had attempted anything of this sort (the famous "tapestry"). From the beginning, the TiF list has used an explicit family-level tree. That has now been extended to a genus-level tree for most families. In some cases it has been pushed to the species level, and in a very few cases, to subspecies.
The Checklist
The TiF checklist currently groups the birds in 47 Orders and 252 families. Both a order-level and family-level trees are now available in pdf format. Due to its length, the family tree is split into 5 parts.
47 Orders | 252 Families |
The checklist can be viewed in two ways. You can either view the annotated checklist on these web pages or download a list. The downloadable lists are Excel csv files that can be imported into spreadsheets such as Excel, or easily manipulated by programs such as perl. Four lists are available in csv format. The ABA list includes only ABA recognized species, but in TiF order, with TiF families. The South American list uses TiF species rather than SACC species.
The version number at the top of the page refers to the csv files. Note that the web pages are updated more frequently than the spreadsheets.
Richard Jackson has provided a TiF-based spreadsheet cross-referenced to the IOC list, the 16 volumes of HBW, and the two volume HBW/BirdLife Illustrated Checklist (ICBW), updated to July 2019.
Dale Mitchell has provided two spreadsheets. These are a subspecies list and family-genus finder (both of which I have slightly edited).
Viewing the Checklist
You can view an annotated version by clicking on the list of bird orders on the right, or by using the family index, or genus index, or by clicking on the family names in the various tree view pages. In the annotated list, recently extinct species and species whose taxonomic placement is particularly uncertain are color-coded. In some cases, superfamilies, subfamilies, tribes, and other groups have been added to help show how the birds are related.
Influences and Resources
The ultimate influences on the TiF list are Charles Sibley, Jon Ahlquist, and Burt Monroe. The Sibley-Monore (1993) checklist and the two earlier volumes by Sibley and Monroe (1990) and Sibley and Ahlquist (1990) sparked my interest in avian taxonomy. In some sense, the TiF list is an attempt to redo their tapestry based on modern genetic studies.
The TiF list was originally based on the 3rd edition Howard and Moore checklist, but the species list has been modified based on decisions by recognized authorities and publications in ornithological journals. The overall species list is now most similar to the IOC list. The IOC list has the advantage of quickly adopting recent changes in taxonomy. Now that they are expanding it to include subspecies and the other amenities of the Howard and Moore list, it has become my base reference. I have also made heavy use of the SACC and HBW projects. The SACC is to be particularly commended for their open revision process, which provides unparalleled information about why particular taxonomic changes were made.
There are numerous other checklists available on the web. For ABA listers, the venerable Clements checklist is now available on the web, and is updated approximately annually. Those focusing on conservation issues may prefer the Bird Life International Checklist, also updated annually, and now being integrated with a new HBW checklist.
Besides the world checklists, there are various other taxonomic resources available on the web. BirdForum's Bird Taxonomy and Nomenclature Forum discusses the latest taxonomic issues. Those interested in tracking lumps, splits, and other changes in bird taxonomy should take a look at Richard Klim's Holarctic Checklist. Although he only considers holarctic species, he does a great job of tracking all the changes. Don Roberson's Bird Families of the World has long followed the ongoing shake-up in bird families.
I've found Alan Peterson's Zoonomen particularly helpful for sorting out the complexities of scientific names. the late John Penhallurick's World Bird Info also has a wealth of information about the history of scientific names, plus information on range, habitat, and sometimes photos. Finally, the Internet Bird Collection includes some of the text from HBW together with a wealth of photos and videos.
I thank Geir Sverre Andersen, Manual Andrés-Moreno, Gustav Asplund, Norbert Bahr, Keith Bennett, David Cole, John Croxall, Thomas Donegan, Stefan Ericsson, Dale Herter, Liam Hughes, Richard Jackson, James A. Jobling, Colin Jones, Leo Joseph, Max Kirsch, Peter Kovalik, Thomas Kuenzel, Marek Kuziemko, Wich'yanan Limparungpatthanakij, Lothar Lorenz, Pietro Martini, Heidi Michelle, Dale Mitchell, D. James Mountjoy, Stephen P. Nawrocki, Jack Neubart, Jonas Nordin, †John Penhallurick, Daniel Philippe, Stephan Pickering, Steve Preddy, Sandy Rae, Michael Ramsey, Laurent Raty, Thomas S. Schulenberg, Nathan Terzaghi, Ben Wielstra, Victor S. Zhukov, and Kristof Zyskowski for their helpful comments and suggestions.


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Recovering junkaholic
Mileage: 15.2
November mileage: 157.4
Temperature upon departure: 34
Rainfall: 0.01"
I went to the dentist this morning, a few days after I became convinced that I had a massive cavity threatening to abscess into my jaw. Turns out I have nothing of the sort, but at least now there are a dozen really expensive digital photographs of the insides of my teeth stored in a computer somewhere in the purgatory of Airport Row.
I'm of course relieved by my no-cavity status, but there's a thin layer of disappointment on the periphery. As the season of giving in approaches, I've been harboring this crazy scheme to reduce sugar in my diet. So far, I have struggled to find the motivation to even begin. I was beginning to believe a massive cavity may be just the kick-start I need to motivate toward ultra-clean living. But I need to be honest with myself. I've set a lot of goals in the past two years, and none of them have touched my diet. The sugar that remains is going to have to be surgically removed.
Not that I haven't made an honest effort to cut back. For as much junk food as I eat these days, there was a time when I was absolutely devoted to it, defended it, and would have starved without it. When my friends and I ate dinner on our backpacking trips, I'd smirk as they toiled over their little camp stoves while I munched effortlessly on Snickers bars. Food is food, and energy is energy, I reasoned. I believed I was free. But I've changed since then. In my blog description, I define myself as someone who "likes to eat goldfish crackers and Pepsi for breakfast." This isn't untrue, but it is, and is becoming more so, a remnant of a past life. For as much as sugar calls to me, the lingering benefits of "healthy" food shout louder.
Geoff and I buy our fresh produce in bulk, Costco style, and even with the lag time of Juneau shipping that cuts longevity in half, we never fail to finish it. Geoff's a vegetarian, so there's not much meat. When I buy cereal, I try to stick to the whole-grain, low sugar types, and Geoff's job as a cook at a natural foods deli has infused a lot of organic flax-seed hippy food into the mix. I'm a lot happier now than I was when I was a junk food junky, and my energy levels are off the chart compared to then. I attribute much of this to "better diet."
And yet, my devotion to junk food remains. If sugar cereals show up in the house, I devour them enthusiastically and without regret. There's a cupboard in the house I can't go near - stocked full of store-bought cookies and six different kinds of chips and and Pop Tarts and Wheat Thins and granola bars and fruit leathers and trail mix and hot chocolate and ... the list goes on. Every time I open this cupboard, large amounts of simple carbohydrates disappear just like that. The reason this cupboard exists is because a former version of myself converted the once sugar-free Geoff to the church of high fructose corn syrup. Now his grocery choices (and mine) threaten to lure me back to the flock.
It seems a noble but impossible battle. Just tonight, I polished off a dinner of veggie burger on whole-wheat bread, green salad with sliced apples, baby carrots and balsamic vinegar, and a huge bowl of Rocky Road ice cream. I can't help but wonder if my dentist had the decency to chew me out, if I would have eschewed the ice cream and munched on a banana instead. Probably not.
On the bright side, the dentist appointment got me out of bed in the pre-dawn darkness of 6:45 a.m. That gave me time to ride Pugsley up Perseverance canyon, eat lunch, and complete my lower-body weight routine at the gym. I should make a habit of waking up early. I wonder if that would convince me to go to bed before 1 a.m. Probably not.
5 comments:
What's the problem here? you're active, you burn calories, your teeth are fine, you still eat your veggies. I dont get it?
Despite eating "well" I still have an open 10 lb bag of chocolate chips that I scarf by the handfull and wash them down with m&m's.
isnt that the whole point of exercise?I can't imagine how Geoff manages to be a vegetarian in AK. One of my friends worked in Alaska for 2 years and she said that finding produce at affordable prices was really hard--then again, she was bushwacking for the Forest Service and not in a city most of the time.
Cutting back is just slow and simple. Start baking. Use turbinado sugar if it's available, or, if you're making something from scratch you can always use bananas and the like as egg substitutes and then you cut back on the sugar because so much isn't needed. But I know how hard it is, I'm a sugar addict too!


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Would You Dye Your Hair Pink?
How About Purple?
How about both?
Not me. I'm not that brave or silly.
This is my sister the artist. She figured what better way to get inspiration?
She did this around Halloween so as a good sister I gave her my witch hat.
Is it me or did this turn out to be an awesome combo?!
My Sis the Witch
Then around Christmas when I realized the pink/purple was staying around for a bit,
I was at our local Walgreen's and found the PERFECT gift for her.
I saw it and just knew the two of them were meant to be pals
My Sis & Her Unicorn
Aren't they a cute pair? Besties forever
or as the kids say: BFF
So, what odd? different? Inspirational color have you gone with?
Not just the spray and wash out type either.
I want to know a color you Really, Really Committed to like my sister the artist?
~~ till we laugh again~~


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Gray Market, Black Heart: Pharmaceutical Gray Market Finds a Disturbing Niche During the Drug Shortage Crisis
Widespread accounts of frustration, outrage, and serious compromises to patient care came across loud and clear from purchasing agents and pharmacists at 549 hospitals who participated in our July-August survey1 on gray market activities associated with drug shortages. When critical medications become scarce and are no longer available through a hospital's usual channels of distribution, unscrupulous gray market distributors have been quick to jump in with inexplicably obtained supplies of these drugs that they are more than willing to sell to healthcare providers at exorbitant costs. Capitalizing on the desperation of pharmacy directors and buyers,2 these distributors have been unrelenting in their quest to make huge profits by supplying hospitals with lifesaving medications that are otherwise unavailable.
Our survey generated hundreds of comments from respondents who feel unsupported by regulatory agencies that have not stepped in to control the gray market, betrayed by some pharmaceutical manufacturers or wholesalers who they presume may have sold medications in short supply to gray market vendors, perplexed regarding how gray market vendors know about pending drug shortages before hospitals do, outraged by the price gouging that accompanies the sale of these vital medications, and frustrated by the wasted time spent on unsolicited communications (telephone calls, emails, faxes) from gray market vendors. Several quotes from survey respondents are provided in italics as we discuss the survey findings.
Gray market solicitations in hospitals
"You are hesitant to tell gray market vendors what you need because they will buy it all up if they find it, and then harass you [to buy it] for months afterwards."
More than half (56%) of all respondents reported receiving daily solicitations from up to 10 different gray market vendors, mostly by phone (90%), email (76%), and fax (68%), to purchase medications no longer available through the manufacturer or usual wholesaler. According to a recent gray market study by Premier, these marketing offers often contain language such as "We only have 20 of this drug left and quantities are going fast."2 More than a quarter (28%) of our survey respondents reported receiving weekly solicitations. Respondents from university hospitals reported more frequent solicitations from gray market vendors than respondents from other types of hospitals. Overall, only 8% of all respondents reported never receiving solicitations from gray market vendors.
More than 13% of respondents also reported receiving solicitations, mostly weekly, from gray market vendors who wanted to purchase vital medications in short supply from the hospital, presumably to sell to other hospitals at steeply inflated prices. Again, these solicitations occurred more often in university hospitals (19%).
How gray market vendors get medications
"I would like to know why hospitals can't get these products, but the 'scalpers' can. It is unreal to have to deal with 'scalpers' in healthcare…"
The most prevalent concerns expressed by survey respondents involved the perplexing questions of how gray market vendors learn about impending drug shortages before many others, and how they obtain these scarce products when the usual wholesalers cannot. Several respondents have directly asked wholesalers and manufacturers if they sell their products to these vendors; many of them said no, but some admitted to selling products—even those in short supply—to distributors that are not a manufacturer-authorized distributor of record. Another respondent said a gray market vendor told him they watch the wholesaler's supply, and if they sense an impending shortage, they buy the entire supply. The vendor insisted there was nothing wrong with selling these medications at hugely inflated prices, knowing full well that patients need these drugs.
Purchasing products from gray market vendors
"Our physicians DO NOT want to hear that a drug is 'unavailable'."
About half (52%) of all respondents reported purchasing one or more pharmaceutical products from gray market vendors during the past 2 years. Most (80%) of these respondents told us that their purchases had increased in the past 2 years as drug shortages began hitting record highs. No significant differences were seen among university, community, and critical access hospitals. However, pediatric hospitals fared a little better with only 40% of respondents from these hospitals reporting purchases from the gray market during the past 2 years. While most respondents (54%) reported purchasing products from only one or two gray market vendors, a quarter (25%) of university hospitals reported purchases from more than five vendors. Very few (4%) respondents have enacted restrictions on the purchase of gray market products for specific patient types (e.g., pediatrics) or medication types (e.g., chemotherapy, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents).
Numerous respondents reported feeling pressured by physicians and hospital administrators to purchase medications from the gray market. Any resistance to the purchase, despite expressed risks, pegs the pharmacist as the "bad guy." While some states have enacted regulations that require documentation of authenticity (pedigree) of any purchased pharmaceutical products, half (50%) of respondents in these states with pedigree laws still reported purchasing medications from the gray market during the past 2 years. Of these, only 35% reported always receiving the required documentation of authenticity.
Reasons for not purchasing products from the gray market
"We have been facing budget cuts, pay cuts, and layoffs. I live on a resort island and, when we are facing a hurricane and vendors overcharge for generators, they face jail time. SOMETHING must be done to help us provide better care and protect our dwindling budgets."
In general, the most common reasons respondents did not purchase medications (48%) from gray market vendors during the past 2 years were: concerns with authenticity (74%), ethical concerns (66%), cost (69%), and concerns about the storage conditions prior to purchase (58%). Interestingly, respondents from states without pedigree laws found concerns with authenticity (82%) a more compelling reason to avoid gray market products than respondents from states with pedigree laws (69%). Respondents from university hospitals cited ethical concerns (83%) as the most significant reason to avoid gray market products, whereas all other types of hospitals reported authenticity issues as the primary concern. A few respondents reported that prior experiences with problematic gray market purchases years ago—poor product performance, short expiration dates, lawsuits and scandals—were the driving force for their current ban on gray market drug purchases. Many respondents also reported that they do not purchase medications from the gray market because they feel the gray market causes and/or exacerbates the ongoing problem with drug shortages. Only one respondent reported that he had not purchased medications from the gray market because he had not encountered a need.
Pricing of gray market products
"Once, the gray market vendor increased the price of a 25-count box of electrolytes from $200 to $325 in a period of 4 hours because he informed me, 'That's what the market will bear.' My contract price for the same electrolytes is $17."
About a third of respondents from critical access hospitals (31%) and community hospitals (35%) who had purchased a product from the gray market during the past 2 years reported that they most often encountered a price mark-up that was 10 times or more than the contract price (900% mark-up). More than half (53%) of the respondents from university hospitals reported pricing this high. Some respondents also reported unusually high costs for the shipping and handling of gray market products.
Similar findings were found in the recent Premier survey, which identified an average mark-up of 650% from the contract price, with higher mark-ups for some critical care drugs, oncology drugs, and anesthetics.2 For example, those who responded to the Premier survey reported more than a 4,000% mark-up for labetalol and more than a 3,000% mark-up for cytarabine, dexamethasone injection, leucovorin, and propofol during April 2011.2 When quantity decreased, demand increased, and so did the price. Our survey respondents also provided examples of exorbitant mark-ups when purchasing products from the gray market during the past 2 years, including a box of calcium gluconate that cost $750 instead of the contract price of $50 (1,400% mark-up), and a supply of propofol that cost $25,000 instead of $1,500 (1,567% mark-up).
Safeguards before purchase
"We are truly making daily decisions that balance patient care against fiscal responsibility."
Among all respondents, only 23% told us they require documentation of authenticity from the gray market vendor before purchase. The percent of respondents who require such documentation was highest among university hospitals (35%) and hospitals in states with a pedigree law (35%), although in both cases, almost a quarter of respondents admitted that they never require documentation of authenticity. Approximately two thirds of all respondents never checked the manufacturer's website to see if the secondary distributor was authorized by the manufacturer—most were unaware that this information is available.
Authenticity issues, medication errors, or adverse reactions
"The product was purchased from the manufacturer and then sold numerous times... from New Jersey to Arizona to Georgia to Tennessee."
Up to 12% of respondents reported awareness of a product authenticity issue, medication error, or adverse drug reactions associated with the use of gray market products in the past 2 years. Most cited errors associated with using a different strength of a product than usual stock, issues with improper storage of drugs that must be refrigerated, sale of recalled or stolen products, illegal importation of pharmaceuticals, questionable chain of custody, and sale of counterfeit products and placebos. According to FreightWatch International, which advises on supply-chain security, prescription drugs account for 15% of annual cargo theft.3 Of the 54 major pharmaceutical thefts reported in 2010, the average value per event was $3.7 million. These drugs are typically sold back into the supply chain by corrupt wholesalers. Meanwhile, the medications can lose potency if not stored and shipped properly.
Risk is also lurking for those who have resisted purchases from the gray market during a time of drug shortage: the risk of errors from using unfamiliar alternative medications, concentrations, and dosage forms. We are also aware of fatal errors that have occurred when pharmacists in hospitals and outsourcing companies have compounded a product in short supply using raw materials.
"When are manufacturers going to address this market? … It constitutes unethical business practices, and I truly believe manufacturers choose to look the other way."
ISMP suggests that a four-pronged strategy is needed to end the gray market domination of products in short supply. First, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs greatly enhanced authority to address the ongoing drug shortage crisis in the US. Legislative action is currently being explored to provide FDA with the expanded authority it needs to better manage drug shortages. In addition, consideration should be given to requiring manufacturers to stop deliveries to wholesalers/distributors when the company knows their products are, or soon will be, in short supply (as is reportedly done by some companies). This way, only direct accounts with hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and other direct patient care providers will have access to the products at the contracted rate. With better control of drug shortages, the gray market cannot thrive.
Next, stronger regulations are needed regarding the distribution of pharmaceutical products. As suggested by many survey respondents, manufacturers and authorized distributors of record can no longer choose to look the other way and ask pharmacies to deal with this issue alone. They must welcome regulatory action—such as a national pedigree law—that limits distribution of pharmaceutical products to authorized distributors of record and other appropriately licensed distributors. Respondents further suggested that pricing for products from distributors should be standardized in a manner that prohibits unfair price gouging, even when products are in short supply.
The third prong includes taking steps in healthcare provider organizations to minimize the need for purchasing products from gray market vendors. For example, several respondents pointed out that pharmacists can use the gray market solicitations to their advantage as an additional source to gain insight into potential drug shortages, which can then lead to optimized planning for the allocation of remaining supplies available in the hospital. Other respondents mentioned local coalitions they have formed that, together, identify drug shortages, determine appropriate limitations on use, and cooperatively borrow from each other to avoid utilizing gray market vendors. Another point made by several respondents is to learn the best ways to order drugs in short supply, such as back-ordering or direct ordering from the manufacturer, and not through the wholesaler. Finally, numerous respondents noted that their pharmacy and therapeutics committees have sought out alternatives for drugs in short supply and implemented safety strategies around these alternative products to avoid errors.
The fourth prong involves regulatory and law enforcement action against illegal activities, such as counterfeiting and theft. As a start, earlier this year, five drug manufacturers—Abbott, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, and Novo Nordisk—formed a coalition that is seeking to amend the law that makes little distinction between stealing a load of cigarettes or stealing chemotherapy drugs, so that criminal penalties for drug theft can be maximized.(3) A bill has also been proposed in Congress to grant police better tools to investigate drug theft, and to enforce stronger penalties to prosecute such cases.3
Until these actions are taken, utilize the recommendations summarized in Table 1 (below), which include a series of actions developed by Premier to help organizations ensure a safe, reliable medication purchase. Readers are also referred to our October 7, 2010, newsletter article, Weathering the storm: Managing the drug shortage crisis for suggested actions, including a template of a failure mode and effects analysis to promote safe use of alternative drugs used during a drug shortage.
1 |
Understand the risks associated with purchases from the gray market, including the possibility that the drugs may be counterfeit, stolen, diverted, mishandled, and/or adulterated. |
2 |
Develop a policy on how your pharmacy will deal with gray market vendors, including details regarding any exceptions that may be allowed. |
3 |
Purchase supplies only from distributors that are an authorized distributor of record for the drug manufacturer (which are listed on the manufacturer's website) or an otherwise appropriately licensed and Verified-Accredited Wholesale Distributor (VAWD) (which are listed on the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy [NABP] website). |
4 |
Require any non-authorized distributors of record to provide a pedigree prior to or upon purchase of a product (which they are required to keep), and authenticate and track each transaction back to the manufacturer's authorized distributors of record. |
5 |
Keep a list of suspect distributors as a resource to check prior to making purchases. |
6 |
Compare the package, label, and contents of products from a non-authorized distributors of record with the manufacturer's original product. If differences are identified, question its authenticity. |
7 |
Report any suspect suppliers and violations to pedigree laws to your State Board of Pharmacy, the FDA, the Federal Trade Commission, and other applicable law enforcement authorities. |
Source: Cherici C, McGinnis P, Russell W. Buyer beware: drug shortages and the gray market. Premier, August 2011.
1) Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). ISMP survey on gray market activities associated with drug shortages. ISMP Medication Safety Alert! June 30, 2011;16(13):4.
2) Cherici C, McGinnis P, Russell W. Buyer beware: drug shortages and the gray market. Premier healthcare alliance. August 2011.
3) Eban K. Drug theft goes big. CNN Money. March 31, 2011.


text:
The electrical current in Israel is 220 volts, 50 cycles alternating current (AC); wall outlets generally have three round holes, but most of these will also take continental-type plugs with two round prongs. Some outlets require plugs with three flat prongs in a Y shape.
If your appliances are dual-voltage, you need only a small adapter plug. Most large hotels provide 110-volt outlets marked for shavers, but don't use those outlets for high-wattage appliances such as blow-dryers. Most laptops operate equally well on 110 and 220 volts and so require only an adapter.
Cruise Search
Air Search


text:
Awen's releases are sketches for instrumental metal tracks arranged on computer.
This music was written by me over a number of years.. Some tracks were finished before 1996, many started before then, and some had finishing touches added after 1996 (mainly mastering). I've dated them at 1996 because they were complete by that stage, though not available. Although I was playing in a band at druing this time (Darkage) I arranged these on computer more as an experiment and lesson in arrangement and composition.
I wrote them using an Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200 using some of the excellent software that was available on that platform at that time. Mostly I used Octamed Sound Studio. Some remastering was done on PC. Bear in mind that the samples used were 8bit samples, and available from the public domain, or sampled by myself. 8bit was the limit of the audio hardware on Amiga at that time. The entire mods were then rendered to 16bit samples in Octamed running under WinUAE for remastering on PC.
All the pieces are instrumental, and have no lyrics or vocals written for them. Let the titles and the music itself paint a picture for you.
The third album, Drumadoir is unfinished, with many tracks still needing remastering. This album is made up of, as the title suggests, all percussion pieces. There are about 20 more to come. This third album will complete a trilogy.
I've decided to release them for all to listen to and enjoy, if they can.
I wrote them for my own enjoyment, and never expected money as a reward.
Enjoy, may it take you through the veils into the otherworld.
Awen, 2004,
What music is there? (Discography)
Nwyvre (Tracklist, Free MP3 & Cover Art)
Collach Dearg (Tracklist & Cover Art)
Drumadoir (Tracklist & Cover Art)
What are all these funny words you are using? (Glossary)
Contact Awen (Email)


text:
Names, Numbers and Nomenclatures
From WikiLeaks
This is an introductory article on National Stock Numbers (NSNs), LIN codes and so on for US Military Logisticians involved with US Military Equipment.
Contents |
Names, Numbers, and Nomenclatures
- By
- Lieutenant Colonel James C. Bates, USA (Ret.)
- Bio
- The author works for Alion Science and Technology and serves as a sustainment planner for the U.S. Joint Forces Command, J–9 Transformation, Distributed Continuous Experimentation Environment, in Suffolk, Virginia. He is a Certified Professional Logistician and a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College and holds an M.B.A. degree from the University of Hawaii. He may be contacted at mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com.
Finding the right name for an item in the supply system is not as easy as it may seem. Here is the author's guide to navigating the names and numbers of Defense cataloging.
Has this ever happened to you? You're deployed somewhere as part of a joint task force, and someone quite senior to you—a mean, grouchy, nonlogistician type—points to an object and says, "I want one of those!" Your first inclination is to respond, "Sure, no problem. What's the stock number?" But you remain silent because you know his reply probably will be, "How the heck am I supposed to know? That's your job. You're the logistician." The senior nonlogistician then walks away as he growls, "Order one, and let me know when it comes in. I need it now. If I wanted it tomorrow, I'd order it tomorrow."
You're left alone scratching your head. You not only don't know what the item's national stock number (NSN) is, you're not even sure what the darn thing is called. Of course, the first step in ordering the item from the supply system is to find out its identifying number (an NSN, line item number, or some other identifier). But to find a number, you first need a name. Determining the item's correct name is hardly a simple matter.
Let's say the item is a widget. It is round, the size of a donut, and made out of some type of metal, probably steel. You wonder what its military name is. Is it a "round widget?" Is it a "steel widget?" A "round, steel, widget?" A "widget, round?" A "widget, steel?" Is it even called a widget, or is the word "widget" slang for some other, technical name?
Because of your experience, you know that using a logistics database is similar to looking up definitions in a dictionary. You have to know the exact (or nearly exact) spelling of a word or phrasing of a term in order to uncover its meaning. You won't be able to find logistics information about a "round widget" if the large database you consult lists the item as a "widget, round." Since you're part of a joint task force, you wonder if the Marine Corps, Air Force, or Navy unit down the road has one. You also question if the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps all identify the item by the same name. (Unfortunately, they don't.)
With no help available from within the joint task force, what's your next step? If you're going to identify your item and satisfy your impatient customer, you're going to have to do some research. Obtaining the right name and number for an item is much more difficult than it appears. Nonetheless, a solid understanding of the complexities of the naming and numbering systems used by the Army, the other services, and DLA will help you obtain the information you need, not only to requisition an item but also to track the onhand and in-transit balances of that item worldwide.
Starting With FED LOG
The subject of the author's search is a high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (NSN 2320–01–371–9577).
Rather than the proverbial widget, let's take a more concrete example. Let's assume the request is for the vehicle shown in the photo to the left. What is its name? What is its identifying number? Both its name and its number depend on which database you search. Yes, the NSN for the vehicle is standardized and thus remains the same, but the NSN is not always easy to determine. Besides, the NSN often is not included in some of the more important databases, such as The Army Authorization Documents System (TAADS), the Army Pre-positioned Stocks (APS) Program, the Global Status of Resources and Training System (GSORTS), and the Joint Operation Planning and Execution System (JOPES). Many of these programs instead use the line item number (LIN) as the means of numerically identifying an item.
In your search to uncover the item's name, you probably will use DLA's Federal Logistics Information System (FLIS). DLA's Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS) at Battle Creek, Michigan, oversees the FLIS. A byproduct of FLIS is a database known as FED LOG, which is updated monthly and is available in CD ROM (six disks) or DVD (one disk) formats. FED LOG also can be accessed on the World Wide Web using disk 1 of an up-to-date (that is, less than 2 months' old) CD ROM set. (To learn more about FED LOG, visit the FED LOG Information Center Web site at www.fedlog.com).
The FED LOG-Interactive screen shown above right displays one of the many data sets available within the FED LOG program. The screen depicts five related but distinct databases, one for DLA and one for each of the armed services. These databases are indicated by the five icons circled by the red oval at the top of the screen: FLIS, an Air Force jet, an Army tank, a Marine Corps buoy, and a Navy anchor.
Within the FED LOG database, a particular item is identified by numerous names and numbers. The types of names include the approved item name (AIN), generic nomenclature, NSN nomenclature, colloquial names, and end item identification. The types of identifying numbers include the NSN, LIN, item name code, item designator number, end item code, model number, and part number; the part number must include the 5-digit Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code for identification purposes.
The good news is that the NSN and the approved item name are standard among the services and DLA. The bad news is that the databases of the services do not always use the NSN or the approved item name. Moreover, the approved item name that is shown in the FED LOG database typically displays a maximum of 19 characters; that field length often is too short to describe the item so a user can quickly grasp what it really is. The item name in our example does not indicate if the vehicle is a 5-ton truck or a 1G-ton truck; it just says "Truck, Utility." (See the second red oval on the screen.)
The FED LOG-Interactive screen displays the vehicle's NSN, item name, and colloquial name.
- Truck,Utility (13 characters).
- Truck,Utility:Cargo (19 characters).
- Truck,Utility:Cargo/Troop,1-1/ (30 characters).
- Truck,Utility:Cargo/Troop,1-1/4 Ton, 4x4 (40 characters).
- Truck,Utility:Cargo/Troop,1-1/4 Ton, 4x4,M998,High (50 characters).
- Truck,Utility:Cargo/Troop,1-1/4 Ton, 4x4,M998,High Mobility Multi (64 characters).
More information about an item can be included if the data field permits the display of more characters.
Selecting Names
Let's take a look at the methods used to select names for equipment and supplies. The FLIS uses what it calls the "item name" as its standard naming convention. The item name consists of three parts: an item name prefix (which is allotted a maximum of 10 characters), a short name (allotted a maximum of 19 characters), and a name root (allotted a maximum of 1,743 characters). In FED LOG, the item name prefix and the short name are identified in the "Item Name" block. The full name (including the name root) is shown in the "Characteristics Segment" (Segment V) under the Master Requirements Code (MRC) "name" block. The lengthier full name typically incorporates the 19-character (or less) short name. For the purposes of this article, the term "item name" will be used for "short name."
The character length used to identify an item in the data field is important because a name becomes more precise as it gets longer. This is illustrated in the chart on page 21. A character can be a letter, a digit, a space, a punctuation mark, or a symbol. In these examples, a data-field length of only 13 characters simply indicates that the item is a utility truck. However, look how much more information about the truck is included in a name that is 64 characters long. On the other hand, a character length much longer than 64 characters would be unwieldy and too long to fit on a single line of an Excel or a Word document file.
DLIS assigns item names based on the recommendations of the services, other Federal agencies (such as the General Services Administration), and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members. DLIS also assigns a 5-digit item name code (INC) for each item name it approves. There are currently over 42,000 approved item names. Item names that have not yet been approved are assigned the 5-digit code of 77777.
Referring back to our example, the NSN for the vehicle in the photo is 2320–01–371–9577. Its approved item name is "Truck, Utility," and its INC is 11354. If you were authorized to order this item and were lucky enough to know its NSN, you could use FED LOG to find out all types of information about it, including its source of supply and related management, transportation, and characteristics data.
Military Names Have Not Yet Been Standardized
Besides the AIN, other ways are used to identify the name of an item, not all of which are shown in FED LOG. Although DLA uses the item name in its FLIS database, the Army and Marine Corps typically use a naming convention called "nomenclature." "Item name" and "nomenclature" are not interchangeable terms; they can be quite different, although in some instances an item's nomenclature will be based on its item name.
The Army nomenclature refers to the vehicle in our example as a "Trk, Util M998A." The Marine Corps nomenclature is different from the Army's. The Marine nomenclature for this item is "Truck, Utility," which, in this case, is the same as the item name. NSN 2320–01–371–9577 also has colloquial names associated with it, such as "High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle," "HMMWV," or "Armored 4x4 Crew Cab Pickup." (See the red oval at the bottom of the screen.) It also is called a "Truck, Utility: Cargo/Troop Carrier, 1G Ton, 4x4, M998" in the Army's Technical Manual 9–2320–280–10.
Different logistics-related databases within the Army itself use different nomenclatures for this specific NSN. Department of the Army (DA) Pamphlet 708–3, Cataloging Supplies and Equipment, Army Adopted Items of Materiel and List of Reportable Items, identifies both an Army "generic nomenclature" and an "NSN nomenclature." The generic nomenclature is restricted to 64 characters and consists of the FLIS item name followed by a colon and additional descriptive information. The NSN nomenclature is restricted to 21 characters and contains the basic noun that identifies the item along with other data that describe its make, model, size, and so forth.
Besides the NSN, this item also can be identified by its INC of 11354, an Army LIN of T61494, a Marine Corps item designator number (IDN) of 08770B, an end item code (EIC) of BBN, and a CAGE part number of 8750297. Unfortunately, this variety of naming and numbering methods reduces the usefulness of logistics databases across the Department of Defense (DOD), requires users to consult several different databases in order to retrieve item information, and prevents the integration of logistics data into an all-encompassing, interoperable, user-friendly database.
Navigating the Data Sources
In many cases, uncovering logistics information is detective work. Knowing how to navigate through the search features of FED LOG will assist you with your efforts. For instance, you can use FED LOG to obtain the NSN for an item when you only know the LIN. A search of Supply Bulletin (SB) 708–21, Cataloging Handbook H2 (which can be accessed via www.dlis.dla.mil/forms/forms.asp), lists name-related titles of Federal supply classifications (FSCs). These can provide you with the corresponding FSC, which is the same as the first four digits of the NSN (2320 in our example). You then can use the FSC as a FED LOG search criterion to determine the appropriate item name, nomenclature, and national item identification number (NIIN). The NIIN is the same as the last nine digits of the NSN (01–371–9577 in our example).
DLA's Cataloging Handbook H6 (which can be found at http://www.dlis.dla.mil/h6/h6_guide.asp) provides several ways to search its database, including a keyword search, an FSC search, and an INC search. In other words, you can use one of these three data elements to find the other two. (The H6 handbook also provides Federal Item Identification Group information, but that is beyond the scope of this article.)
When you have neither the name nor the identification number for an item, a good place to begin your search for both is SB 708–21 (the H2 handbook). As noted, an FSC has four digits (the same as the first four digits of the NSN). The first two digits of an FSC refer to the Federal Supply Group. The title of Group 23 is "Ground Effect Vehicles, Motor Vehicles, Trailers, and Cycles." The last two digits of the FSC are known as the "Federal Supply Class," which provides even more detailed information than contained in the group. For example, an FSC of 2320 (consisting of Group 23 and Class 20) includes wheeled trucks and truck tractors (see chart above right).
GROUP 23 Ground Effect Vehicles, Motor Vehicles, Trailers, and Cycles 2320 Trucks and Truck Tractors, Wheeled
- Note
- This class includes only complete wheel mounted trucks and truck tractors, and chassis therefor. Any end items, assemblies, parts, attachments, or accessories other than complete chassis, for use in or on such trucks or truck tractors are classified in classes other than this class.The combined chassis and body of a special purpose truck, such as a machine shop, mobile laundry, or dental laboratory, is classified in this class. The complete mobile unit, consisting of chassis, body, and additional equipment, as in an equipped truck mounted machine shop, is excluded from this class.
- Includes
- Panel, Delivery and Pick Up Trucks, Tactical and Administrative Military Cargo Carrying Vehicles, including Wheel Mounted Amphibian Vehicles; Truck Tractors and Trailer Combinations; Armored Cars.
- Excludes
- Fire Trucks; Special Construction Type Earth and Rock Hauling Trucks; Motorized Air Compressors; Motorized Concrete Mixers; Construction Specialized Machinery Generally; Specially designed trucks for use in and around airfields, hangers, and warehouses; Tracked and Halftracked Vehicles.
This is the listing for the Federal Supply Classification (2320) for our vehicle as found in Supply Bulletin 708–21, Cataloging Handbook H2.
This FSC could be used to find the appropriate NSN, though this is not necessarily a simple process since each FSC can include thousands and thousands of different NSNs. Of course, the more information you have about an item, the easier your search will be.
If the FLIS expanded its database to include a standard "approved nomenclature" (which would incorporate the item name but also include appropriate modifiers so that the data field length approached but did not exceed 64 characters), and if all pertinent DOD logistics databases used approved nomenclatures along with the corresponding NSNs, many of the data incompatibility issues plaguing DOD would be resolved. According to DLIS personnel, many standardized nomenclatures are already in use in some areas, such as electronics and aerospace. If item managers for vehicles and other major items would standardize their naming practices, a new data element for "nomenclature" could be appended to the AIN, thereby standardizing the name. The services would still be free to use other naming and numbering conventions within their databases, as long as they used the approved nomenclatures and NSNs as well.
As this article demonstrates, the two most important pieces of data needed in order to retrieve supply information are the names of items and their identifying numbers. Logisticians who master the H2, H6, and FED LOG databases will be able to find the appropriate NSN, LIN, item name, and nomenclature for the items they need. These critical data then can be used to exploit the logistics information found in TAADS, JOPES, and Joint Total Asset Visibility (JTAV), as well as other databases such as the Global Transportation Network's (GTN's) in-transit visibility (ITV) systems.
Let's return to our scenario to finish the story. After lengthy research, you find out that the crusty nonlogistician's Army unit is not authorized this type of widget on its modification table of organization and equipment (MTOE). So there is no sense in ordering the widget now, since the transaction would only be rejected by the supply system. However, you help the unit write up a DA Form 2028, Recommended Changes to Publications and Blank Forms, and a DA Form 4610–R, Equipment Changes in MTOE/TDA [table of distribution and allowances], so that the Department of the Army can review whether or not the unit should be authorized this item. You also conduct a JTAV search, which shows that a Marine Corps unit located nearby has an "extra" widget, which it agrees to loan to the Army unit you've been supporting. You then assist the Army unit in completing the temporary hand receipt.
When all is done, you feel good about yourself. Your knowledge of supply helped a supported unit, even though one of the leaders of that unit was only vaguely aware of the substantial effort it took on your part to do so. Almost on cue, the grouchy nonlogistician pushes by you, picks up the widget, and prepares to leave. However, just before he does, he notices that his boss' vehicle parked nearby has a new, eye-catching antenna. "Hey, supply guy," he says to you as he departs. "I don't know what it's called, but get me one of those deals too." So it is back to your research. ALOG
The author wishes to thank the subject matter ex-perts at the Defense Logistics Information Service for their invaluable assistance in the writing of this article.